Final Fantasy XV [PS4, X1]

The Final Fantasy XV demo has received a release date and a trailer. The demo will be called ‘The Episode of Duscae’ and will come bundled with early copies of Final Fantasy Type-0 HD, which is due to launch on the 20th of March this year in Europe and the 17th in the US for the Xbox One and PS4.
The Episode of Duscae demo for Final Fantasy XV will also launch on these dates, meaning that those who pre-ordered Type-0 HD can jump straight in. The trailer has also launched, which you can watch below:

The trailer starts off with scenes from Final Fantasy Type-0 HD, with Final Fantasy XV coming in towards the end.
Final Fantasy XV had been in development for many years now, it was originally supposed to release as Final Fantasy Versus XIII several years ago. The release of this demo hopefully means that the game is actually finally coming out.

Square Enix has released some luscious screenshots of the latest game in its successful Final Fantasy RPG series. The images of Final Fantasy XV: Episode Duscae come just one month before its first demo for PS4 and Xbox One is set to be released, which will be bundled with Final Fantasy Type-0 HD on 17th March.
The screenshots look stunning. Let’s hope that this time the gameplay can match the visuals.Source: DualShockers

Made with Flare More Info'> Final Fantasy XV director Hajime Tabata revealed the gameplay for Final Fantasy XV: Episode Duscae (the demo release of the game), and it looks pretty spectacular. The video was showcased during the Active Time Report Page 4.0 broadcast.

Final Fantasy XV: Episode Duscae will be made available for Xbox One and PlayStation 4 one hour after the release of Final Fantasy Type-O HD. Tabata says that the full game is around 60% complete at this point.Source: DualShockers

Thanks to the latest Active Time Report, we have three new videos showcasing gameplay in Final Fantasy XV, and this time they’re in English.
The videos, introduced by Final Fantasy XV director Hajime Tabata, show the approach to a dungeon, played on Xbox One, and inside the dungeon, taken from the PS4 version. Finally, we have a BBC-esque “World of Wonder” documentary, which shows off some of the weird and wonderful creatures that inhabit the game’s milieu.

Square Enix has released some direct feed screenshots of the Final Fantasy XV demo, Episode Duscae, and some new information regarding the game.

A New Generation of FINAL FANTASY: The latest platform technology brings Duscae to life, rendering fast-paced action against breathtaking backdrops under a sky that changes in real time.

Open World Exploration: Guide Noctis and his entourage over the plains, through the woods, into the dungeons and around the outposts of Duscae as players roam freely about the expansive region.

Action-Packed Combat: FINAL FANTASY XV is the first FINAL FANTASY flagship title to give players direct control over combat in real-time, resulting in an exhilarating action RPG experience.

Summoning: Uncover the astral power that will enable Noctis to call larger-than-life vengeance down from the heavens.

Engaging Quests: Adventures great and small await in Duscae.

English and Japanese Voice-Over: Enjoy English or Japanese audio with English, French, German, Italian, Japanese or Spanish text.

Backstory
When you’ve spent your entire life looking out at the serrated city skyline, it’s easy to lose yourself in the sprawling Duscaen landscape. The prince and his retinue were halfway to Cauthess when their daydreams came to a sudden, screeching halt—the Regalia’s last gasp before giving out to the unpaved backroads.
Now they were truly lost in the landscape: broken down by the side of the road with the Disc well out of walking distance. The Archaean, Titan, would have to wait. He’d been dormant for ages anyway. The first order of business was getting back on four wheels.

Final Fantasy XV handles combat very differently than previous games

Eurogamer had an early look at the Final Fantasy XV demo that’s coming soon with the release of Final Fantasy Type-0 in a couple of weeks. You can hear about their impressions in the video below:

Final Fantasy XV Episode Duscae, will release alongside Final Fantasy Type-0 HD on March 17th for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One platforms. You can watch the PAX East trailer for Final Fantasy Type-0 HD below:

For Final Fantasy fans the wait is over. Final Fantasy XV Episode Duscae demo voucher can be redeemed on the PlayStation Store. Those who have early access to Final Fantasy Type-0 HD copies should be able to redeem their voucher code, as can be seen in the tweet below.

There are multiple confirmations of the demo going live on Twitter and over at gaming forum NeoGAF. The demo download size is somewhere between 6 to 6.5 GB.

Final Fantasy XV Episode Duscae is bundled with Final Fantasy Type-0 HD. It is a short demo aimed at giving the players an early look at the game mechanics, exploration and the graphics of Final Fantasy XV.

According to Final Fantasy XV director Hajime Tabata, players will get two hours of gameplay out of Final Fantasy XV: Episode Duscae; this can be increased to three or four hours if they really dive into it. The demo will take place in the Duscae region near the beginning of the game, which has been showcased in the E3 2014 trailers. The area includes at least a road, a gas station, and wilderness with wild animals, grassy plains, and forests, as well as mountainous areas overflowing with trees and caves that can be tricky to find. There won’t be any towns in the demo, but there will be a number of outposts and little facilities as well as “fun and interesting” human interactions, some comical. Chocobos will be in the demo and there will be a chocobo ranch, but the player won’t be able to ride them. The demo will be seamless, although the full game will likely have some load times for important scenes.

Final Fantasy XV Episode Duscae will feature a prototype summon system and an Eidolon

Episode Duscae will limit open world aspects, but it will still be wide-ranging. Players can fight monsters and explore dungeons, although dungeons are optional. The passage of time (a day being 45 minutes long) and camping will be present in the demo. Night time is dangerous and different monsters lurk during in the dark. The demo will focus on battle. Noctis’s “Phantom Sword” will be usable.
The demo will have a prototype summon system and an Eidolon to show players how to tame and use one. Which Eidolon it will be is not known yet, but it will not be Titan. One quest in the demo is finding phantom swords for Noctis’s special ability. The party members will point out details from the environment to uncover the quests. After beating the main scenario there is an ending and more things are unlocked for the player to go back and do.
Final Fantasy Type-0 HD will be released on March 17, 2015 for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Final Fantasy XV Episode Duscae will be bundled with the game.

Square Enix took an odd approach with its Final Fantasy XV demo, for starters, it is only available to those that bought Final Fantasy Type-0HD and now in an effort to step out of the box even further, the publisher is updating the XV demo, fixing up some bugs, balancing the combat and improving overall performance.
In May, those that have the Final Fantasy XV demo installed will receive a Jetpackversion 2.00 update, enhancing the co-op move system, the camera targeting system, adding in some new combat actions and removing a few bugs. For those who haven’t had a chance to play, the Final Fantasy XV demo is essentially a three-hour or so slice of the final game, which is currently slated for a 2015 release.
The demo update will reportedly work on stabilizing the frame rate as well. Right now, both the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 dip to around 25 frames per second while running Final Fantasy XV: Episode Duscae, according to a Digital Foundry report.
While Final Fantasy XV does not have an official release date just yet, Square Enix did recently announce that it will be hosting its own E3 press conference alongside Bethesda, Microsoft and Sony. Since the publisher is hosting its very own conference this year, it is safe to assume that they have some big announcements to share.

During the latest Active Time Report Broadcast, Final Fantasy XV Director Hajime Tabata explained that the story has been changed from the original Final Fantasy Versus XIII.

The developers tried to retain as many elements as possible, while considering what was feasible on the new hardware.The developers remained as faithful to the original story albeit with some changes

Some changes have been made, including a few main points:

The team found it difficult to fit Stella in Final Fantasy XV, so she won’t be included in the game.

They instead created a new heroine, Luna, who has a different role in the game.

The sequence in which Insomnia is attacked by enemy troops and Noctis fights there (which appeared at E3 2015) is no more part of the game.

There will still be gameplay in Insomnia, but it won’t be around the same time line. Tabata-san promised that they will be great, and encouraged fans to look forward to thekm.

The woman with black hair and the female dragoon are still in the game and have an important role.

There will be no new trailer for Final Fantasy XV at E3 2015

Episode Duscae 2.0 was originally planned for a late-May release, but was delayed to in order to polish the game further, and improve performance. Final Fantasy XV director Hajime Tabata explains that they were able to hit most of their major milestones in time for the patch and have managed to included it all in the latest update.
It was revealed that there will be no new trailer or info planned for Final Fantasy XV at E3 2015, but rather we are going to learn more about the game at Gamescom. A new Active Time Report is also planned to be streamed live from the event stage.
Final Fantasy XV Episode Duscae 2.0 update will be out on PS4 and Xbox One on June 9th 2015.
We will bring you any new information on Final Fantasy XV as soon as it becomes available.

Square Enix has released a new impressive tech demo video for Final Fantasy XV, showing the power of its Luminous Engine. Check it out after the break.

Enjoy this impressive technical demonstration of the Luminous Studio, that is powering the upcoming blockbuster title FINAL FANTASY XV.
In this video you will also be able to get some insight and commentary, from the talented minds involved in the creation of such powerful gaming technology.

Square Enix has just released a new FFXV trailer called Dawn, finally showing new bits of the story related to the main protagonist, Noctis Lucis Caelum(also Crown Prince of Lucis).
It had been a long time since we got a brand new FFXV trailer, so savor this one as there’s no telling when we’ll have another one. Final Fantasy XV, running on the proprietary Luminous Engine, still has no release date and it’s fair to assume that it won’t launch until 2016 at the earliest.
Right now, the game is only scheduled to hit PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, though there’s a good chance that it will be available at some point for PC as well – Square Enix has recently increased their PC support by releasing Final Fantasy XIII, with Final Fantasy TYPE-0 HD hitting Steam in a couple of weeks.

It looks like Final Fantasy XV will finally release next year, according to the game’s Director, Hajime Tabata. The game has been in development on and off since 2006, initially for the PlayStation 3. Over the years, the game has been through plenty of changes but it looks like fans of the series will finally be able to play on the Xbox One and PS4 next year.When asked by GameSpot about Square Enix’s plans to reveal Final Fantasy XV’s release date, Hajime Tabata said: “At the very least, I can tell you that it isn’t going to be released this year. I think we’ll be able to tell you when we’re making the announcement around PAX Prime, at the end of this month.”
Square Enix didn’t bring a whole lot to Gamescom this year, so when the site pointed out that fans may struggle to stay excited throughout such a lengthy development process, Tabata said: “I understand why people are feeling that way after coming to Cologne and speaking to a lot of the media. We really do get the feeling that people are a bit worried. Certainly, one thing I would like to say to them to reassure them, is that we’ve set down the release date, we know when it is, and we’ve got a complete road map lined up, right up to launch, and we’re proceeding along that as planned.”
“We can certainly say to people: it’s not going to be 2017. It’s going to be before that”. So there we go, Final Fantasy is launching before 2017 and it’s not launching this year, so expect the game sometime in 2016.

With almost a full decade in development, fans are quite eager to finally get their hands on Final Fantasy 15...but up until now Square Enix has been quiet on any kind of release info. According to game director Hajime Tabata, the wait is almost over, and the devs have some extra goodies to share during the wait.

"At the very least, I can tell you that it isn't going to be released this year," Tabata said in an interview with GameSpot. "We can certainly say to people: it's going to be before 2017. I think we'll be able to tell you when we're making the announcement around PAX Prime, at the end of this month."

Sadly this isn't the fully fledged release date confirmation that gamers had hoped for. Square Enix seemed to be teasing something big for Gamescom 2015 and everyone thought at long last a release date would be announced. Amid this disappointment Tabata affirms that Square Enix has indeed set a release date for Final Fantasy 15, and that a strategic plan is in place.

"I understand why people are feeling [disappointed] after coming to Cologne and speaking to a lot of the media. We really do get the feeling that people are a bit worried. Certainly, one thing I would like to say to them to reassure them, is that we've set down the release date, we know when it is, and we've got a complete road map lined up, right up to launch, and we're proceeding along that as planned."

In lieu of a release date gamers received a new story trailer and a hefty chunk of new details to chew on. The newly released Active Time Report highlights a number of revelations that help paint a clearer picture of the studio's magnum opus--from story details to game mechanics and even another playable demo testing phase.

The report maintains that Final Fantasy 15 keeps the original morose sentiments of FF13 Versus, with Tabata himself saying that the game will be the "saddest, most dramatic storyline in the series". This drama is accomplished by focusing on the bonds between a father and son as well as friendship, and we can expect a number of disastrous calamities that push these bonds to their limit.

Final Fantasy 15 will also feature a tremendous counterforce to Noctis' struggle. The main antagonist, who is largely still unknown other than his male gender, is going to "top all the other Final Fantasy villains" in brute strength. Expect chaotic magic of the darkest kind and probably some massive demonic summons to boot.

As far as mechanics, the game's Cross Chain system will be heavily revamped to contrast the one featured in Episode Duscae. Square is determined to tap user feedback to shape a game that the community wants to play. Speaking of which, Square Enix has announced that Final Fantasy 15 will get a second playable demo test, although actual details remain scarce.

We'll likely see a full release date announcement and info on the new test demo phase later this month at PAX Prime, and even next month during Tokyo Game Show 2015.